Breaking the Social Media Addiction

Bad habits drive me crazy, I wish I didn’t have them, but I do. That is why, once a year, I don’t drink coffee for a week. I’m a 3-cups-a-day kind of guy, but I don’t like to be dependant on caffeine. I need to know that I can stop it at any time. I need to be able to be stronger than that.

I watched a video recently that reminded me of this type of thing. If you have time, watch it, especially if you have a “smart phone”, which I’m sure you do.

In 2012, Harvard released a study about social media and it’s affect on the brain. If you watched the video above, you know that when using social media, it releases a drug called “dopamine”. Just like caffeine, it can be addictive. Note: I’m not saying social media is evil, I’m saying that too much social media, and being dependant on it is a problem.

Because of this video, I’m making a lifestyle change. Maybe it will be permanent, maybe temporary, but I’m doing it. Here are my life changes:

1) No phone at meal times: my family deserves attention. The team at Sideways8 normally is still working (go team!) when we eat dinner (5:15 often), and I’ll have to ignore Slack messages during lunch and dinner.

2) I’m not charging my phone right next to my bed: addiction to news is another thing I have. I’ve moved my USB charger across the room. I know that is a small change, but when I can’t sleep, I’ll try to sleep instead of trying to see if World War III has started or not.

#3 is a big deal. But it can wait until I’m on a computer. I don’t have to get it on Facebook ASAP.

My favorite quote from the video is this:

“Everything you want you can have instantaneously. Everything you want, instant gratification! Except for job satisfaction and strength of relationships. There ain’t no app for that. They are slow, meandering, uncomfortable, messy processes.” – Simon Sinek